I was watching my new favourite show MasterChef last night and in the Masterclass episode, George Calombaris (one of the chefs/judges) was teaching the contestants how to make the best ever chunky chips. He made it look so easy and being a big chip fan myself I just HAD to try it. Yes, this was a recipe that actually got my butt off the couch and into the kitchen where my mum looked at me suspiciously when I pulled out some cooking utensils.

I was scared but excited at the same time since I rarely make anything from scratch (requires too much time and effort). But I am proud to say that the chips were a super-crunchy-on-the-outside-and-heavenly-soft-on-the-inside success!

Here’s how YOU can make awesome chips.

Ingredients:

Potatoes

Salt

Oil

What to do:

1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into thick cut chips – try to keep them the same size so they cook evenly
2. Put the potatoes into a pot of cold water with some salt
3. Bring the potatoes to boil on high heat, be careful not to let them boil for too long as the potatoes will become too soft and break
4. Drain the potatoes and lay them on a tray
5. Put the potatoes in the fridge to dry out for at least half a day – this is the key to making them crispy on the outside
6. Heat oil (he recommended peanut oil) and deep fry the chips, taking them out when they start to look golden
7. Sprinkle salt on the chips immediately and serve!

I actually tested a batch of chips that had been refrigerated for about 1 hour and they turned out great but not as crunchy and friggin’ delicious as the batch that had been in the fridge for about half a day. So it really does make a difference to let them dry out for longer!

So back when FoodSwings started, the crew ate pho together pretty much every week at Pho Dzung during lunchtimes. The Pho-Off started with us talking about where we would normally go eat pho if we were away from the city. Given that KTang, JenHo and myself were moving offices, we thought we would go back to Pho Dzung one last time.

What did we eat?

KTang, JenHo, Rayzha, WiFi & special guest Jaymie (watch out – she kicks!): What else? The staple…Pho Tai Nam! See KTang’s translation in round 1

What I liked:

1. They actually serve large bowls…and there isn’t any need to order a 2nd bowl. You can just finish JenHo’s leftovers…

What I didn’t like:

1. The soup flavour can range from weak to pretty weak compared to the other Pho restaurants Foodswings has visited.
2. A slice of beef squeaked while I was chewing it…

Top Tip:
If you can go somewhere else for Pho do so. If you can’t leave the city for whatever reason, this is probably the best place to go.

Rating:
6/10 We keep going back…so by default it gets at least a PASS score

It took me almost 6 months to find this cake (mainly because I don’t go to Wheelers Hill Shopping Centre). This is the best chocolate mousse cake I’ve ever had. It’s rich but not overly sweet. And from what I’ve seen, once you’ve had some, you’ll come back for more.

Just look at it!

The reviewers have been kind to Vue de Monde – something along the lines of 3 chefs hat, glamorous, professional, ambitious…memorable and oh-so-worth-it…blah blah blah.

I’ve never actually been there. Why? Because I am generally at dessert house eating cheap dirty asian food and foolishly blowing my stimulation from KRudd on this coffee machine (which for the price I paid, should have come with a barister…or even a barrister har-har).

But I can almost hear Shannon Bennett saying to me “That’s ok, that’s why I’ve got Cafe Vue – for stingy stupid people like yourself. Come in, come in…not via the main entrance though, that’s for the important people who can afford Vue de Monde, come in from the shitty side entrance…”

What did we eat?

• kTang: Cafe Vue lunchbox w/ wild mushroom rice cake, capsicum salad, roast pork and beetroot bagel, chocolate macaroon
• Wifi: Vue burger & fries

What I liked:

• The interior is quite nicely furnished and gives off a welcoming and warm rustic feel.
• According to WiFi, the burger was pretty good, he didn’t give me any, the bastard, so it must’ve been alright.

What I didn’t like:

• We waited over 30 minutes for our food to come out. They were apparently waiting for Bistro Vue to cook me the rice cake. I’m sure I have a long lost 7 year old cousin that works on a rice paddy farm in China somewhere who could plant, harvest, dry, hull, mill, enrich the rice and make me 50 rice cakes in 30 minutes for about $0.27. Perhaps that is why everything is made in China…
• Nothing was overly tasty in my lunchbox, even though I was starving after waiting so long for the food.

Top tip:

Try Bistro Vue, or if you can afford it, Vue de Monde.

I haven’t been to either yet, but given that they are exponentially more expensive than cafe vue, it can’t get any worse right?

Rating:

4/10. I still think my long lost rice paddy cousin in China could do better.

As always, don’t forget to check out our Flickr stream for more photos.

What an awesome name. It’s got ‘huh?’ written all over it, but I still like it none the less.

What did we eat?

• Rayzha & I: +2 capricciosa
• Wifi: +1 salami pizza thing with cherry tomatoes…I don’t remember what that pizza was called!
• JenHo: +1 piadina & tiramisu

What I liked:

1. The base of the pizza was quite tasty and they use good quality ingredients for the topping. Their pizzas are also quite reasonably priced at only $10 during lunch time.



2. I also really enjoy places that serve coke in a glass bottle, it definitely beats aluminium cans. (Not to mention it comes in quite handy just in case you need to glass someone…)
3. The atmosphere is quite good – a place that you definitely think of when you’re organising a catch up with friends.
   
    

What I didn’t like:

1. I would have preferred just a little more topping, especially towards the edges. Apparently it’s supposed to be more traditional to have less topping so you can appreciate the base, but I can never get enough of a good ham, mushroom & olive combination.
2. We had a table of 14 and half of us were asked to leave because we weren’t drinking coffee while the other half of the table was…a bit rude don’t you think?

Top tip:

You’ll definitely need to book a table beforehand (see details below), otherwise don’t expect a table. 

Rating:

7/10. Definitely worth trying. Just remember to order coffee if you want to stay at your table a bit longer!
Don’t forget to check out our Flickr stream for more photos.
  

I’ve been going to Ten Ren Tea House for a while now purely for 1 reason – they have the best pearl milk tea I’ve tasted in Melbourne. The milk tea is made with proper black tea and blended with ice and milk powder (probably that melamine kidney-stone causing stuff, but hey it tastes good) and they generally have fresh pearls which are soft and sweet.

However each time I go there, I will without fail have a ‘what the f***’ moment. I believe the management at Ten Ren have a special skill – hiring  retards. In fact, make that hiring retarded retards.

Now as an Asian, customer service is not very high on my list of things that I look for in a good restaurant. In fact, I could probably count the number of Chinese restaurants with good service and good food on one hand. Most of the places with good food tend to be run by some angry middle aged woman and a grandma chef who doesn’t speak English – I can handle that. Ten Ren however, seem to have the following recruitment and operating policies:

• 3 girls who have been in Australia for less than 1 week to operate 1 POS at all times. 
• 1 angry girl to make all the drinks in the store
• No English speaking staff, in fact, limited language skills are better – simple utterances of eh? oh… mmm, ahh will suffice
• 1 minute wait while the 3 girls at the POS confer and finally decide that the reason you’re standing in front of them is to place an order
• Minimum wait time of 5 minutes while ordering so that each girl at the POS can push all the possible buttons in an attempt to put through your drink as an order. After 5 minutes, they ask the angry drink girl for help and group together in fear that she will stab them to death with her bubble cup straws.

So my fellow readers, I am torn. Great product, absolutely disgraceful and ridiculous customer service…would you go back?

Btw, they increased the price of pearl milk tea to $4.00. Come on now, seriously…I could have 2 double cheeseburgers from Macca’s for $4! As if $3.50 wasn’t expensive enough for a drink that will be the cause of my diabetes in the future.